Within the field of industrial automation technology, bus systems such as e.g. Ethernet, Profibus, Interbus, Modbus, AS-Interface bus, etc. are also used for communication between devices instead of the wiring-intensive parallel wiring schemes. In terms of its immunity to EMC interference (EMC=Electromagnetic Compatibility) the AS-Interface bus system in particular is designed to cope with conditions in industrial environments. The EMC interference can be minimized by way of an appropriately structured configuration of the bus system line, though in some installations excessive levels of noise are nonetheless generated which disrupt communication on the bus so severely that the communication on the bus system collapses. Such a breakdown is extremely undesirable, since virtually any interruption of the bus communication leads to system malfunctions and hence to costly production downtimes. Due to the fact that the excessive noise levels mostly occur sporadically, eliminating the cause is very difficult and time-consuming.